F5H26 








y- 




.0' 



v-f^ 







.v-^ 



" o 




i' 



'i., _. 

-« ♦ « . o ' ^^^ 



» • ► - ^0 O ' , . s * 

v^*^ 

















" tJ 







^■^ m 


<5>-^ * N 


■' - '^> 


^^ 


^-.^^ 




■^ " O o h 



-^ 



¥^ ^^ 



-^^ 

'^- 



:^' 
.^■ 



^4 <2» 



%,^^' 







^. 



<y c, ^ * ' ' -5- ^>' 



FITCHBURG HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



MEETING HOUSE IN FITCHBURG 



COMMONLY KNOWN AS 



"THE LORD'S BARN" 



BY REV. G. H. HARDY 

OF ASHBURNHAM 



FITCHBURG 

Sentinel Printing Company 
1910 



r^4 



■7 ^6> 



<2 



"THE LORD'S BARN." 

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE FITCHBURG 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAY 16, 1910. 



On the Ashburnham hill road, just 
where Deane hill begins to dip down 
toward the West, is a spot around 
which cluster peculiar memories. Here 
for more than a generation stood 
"The New-Meeting-House in Fitch- 
burg," known in later days as "The 
Lord's Barn." The story of this build- 
ing of God. is" unique in ecclesiastical 
history. 

At a meeting called for that purpose, 
May 17, 1785, the citizens of West- 
minster "Voted to sett off the Westerly 
part of the Town," to form the town 
of Gardner. On June 27, the General 
Court in answer to a petition to that 
effect incorporated the new town. In 
the warrant calling the meeting at 
which final action was taken an article 
was inserted upon petition of a num- 
ber of inhabitants of the northeasterly 
part of the town asking that the peti- 
tioners with their estates be ceded to 
the town of Fitchburg. It was sum- 
marily voted to dismiss this article. 
3 



But this did not end n6r indeed did it 
begin the matter. This move was only- 
part of a plan to form an entirely 
new township from portions of Fitch - 
burg, Westminster, Ashburnham and 
Ashby. Fitchburg at this time was 
populated by only a few hundred in- 
habitants, the majority of whom were 
widely scattered over its territory. 
There were a few houses near the 
meeting-house not far from where the 
railroad station now stands. The next 
most thickly settled portion of the 
town was on Deane Hill, about four 
miles distant, and this was probably 
the most enterprising and at that time 
prosperous part of Fitchburg. It had 
a commanding position, the soil was 
rich and fertile, and the people rather 
prided themselves upon their com- 
parative independence, having a little 
community of their own, with a num- 
ber of good neighbors in the adjoining 
towna. 

The time had come when a new 
meeting-house inust be built and the 
location of it became a question of 
great interest to all the people. Some 
chose the old site: others earnestly 
demanded a new one. For the sake of 
better accommodation and to end the 
controversy the idea of a new town- 

4 



ship was a most desirable thing- to be 
accomplished. Besides this were the 
taxes for church support, with church 
privileges four miles away, and taxes 
were considerably increased by dam- 
ages to roads and bridges along 
through that portion of the town 
which is now the thickly settled part 
of the city. For these portions of their 
taxes they received small returns. The 
river, which has added, so much to the 
prosperity of the place, was a nuisance 
on account of freshets, indeed a curse 
instead of a blessing: again it now 
seems in the question of sewerage 
something of a nuisance. 

A new town then was to be the cure 
for these troubles: for this they had a 
sufficient population, ample room, fi- 
nancial means, and enterprise. They 
also had in their neighborhood 
two taverns, Jed«diah Cooper's tav- 
ern in Westminster, farm now 
owned by William Hartnett; and 
Jacob Upton's tavern in Fitchburg, 
now occupied by the family of Mr. 
Charles Fairbanks; a store kept by 
Capt. John Upton, and a blacksmith's 
shop. Dr. Ball practised medicine in 
this vicinity, so only a meeting-house 
and a minister were wanting to make 
their town complete. They appealed 
5 



to their fellow citizens In town meet- 
ings; and to the Legislature of the 
state in petitions. Such a petition 
signed by Jacob Upton and sixty-three 
others was presented to the Senate 
Feb. 1, 1791. Such a storni of opposi- 
tion was aroused that the Legislature 
gave "leave to withdraw" to the peti- 
tioners. The new town was to be 
christened "Belvoir," beautiful view, 
for the outlook is beautiful; Ashburn- 
ham Center nestling among the val- 
leys toward the West; Westminster 
crowning the hills on the Southwest, 
Wachusett rising in majesty and beau- 
ty with the intervening hills and val- 
leys on the South. A similar attempt 
to incorporate the new town of Ver- 
non to cover the same territory made 
about a quarter of a century after- 
wards in 1815 also signally failed. No 
further attempts in this line were 
made. 

One thing, however, did ma- 
terialize and that was the new church; 
for with the movement for a new town 
vv'as carried forward to partial success 
the work of building a house of wor- 
ship as an important part of the same 
general plan. The first step in this pro- 
ject was the following agreement: "We, 
the Subscribers are desirous to be set 
6 



off from the several towns to which 
we belong and join mutually with each 
other and build a meetinghouse near 
the Laws' corner on the county road." 
This paper has no date but probably 
v/as drawn early in 1786, and was 
signed by 57 persons; thirty-three from 
Fitchburg, sixteen from Westminster, 
six from Ashburnham and two from 
Ashby, thus showing the relative in- 
terest of the several towns in the de- 
sired advantages. On May 31, 1786, the 
subscribers and probably, others met at 
the house of Jacob Upton in Fitchburg, 
and voted "to build a meeting-house 
near Mr. Thomas Laws corner." At 
a subsequent meeting it was "voted to 
set up the frame 45 feet square with a 
hipped roof." Captain Flint, Reuben 
Smith and Abraham Willard were made 
a committee "to draw an obligation 
for those persons to sign that are dis- 
posed to assist in building said house." 
This obligation, dated Aug. 15, 1786, 
vvas as follows: "We the subscribers do 
obligate ourselves to get such a num- 
ber of Lots of Timber for a Meeting- 
house frame such as we shall subscribe 
against our names and likewise stone 
in order to underpin the same and such 
parts of labor as shall be necessary 
to effect said building and likewise 



bring the timber and stone to the spot 
where said frame is to stand by the 
first of M;ay next." Forty-nine names 
were attached and some contributed 
material, some labor, and some rie, 
each according to his liking. The ques- 
tion of location then arose, so Mr. 
David Mclntire offered to give for 
the purpose a lot of land lying just 
within pitchburg, and the offer was 
accepted. The work of collecting ma- 
terial was slow, so it was not till the 
spring of 1788 that it was ready for 
use. On the 19th of April the framing 
began and continued during the sum- 
mer. John Smith's father came up 
from the Ned Smith place with a broad 
ax on his shoulder to help hew^ the 
timbers, which w^ere of white oak, the 
Isrgest of them said to be 18 inches 
square and no one knows how long. 
The frame having been completed a 
meeting was held Oct. 24, "to prepare 
for the raising. Owing to the heavy 
timbers it was a great undertaking and 
careful provision must be made. An in- 
teresting and suggestive subscription 
paper was drawn. One Westminster 
signer promised "10 men and their 
board and 2 gallons of rum;" another 
"10 men and 10 quarts of rum;" an- 
other "1 barrel of Cyder;" another "2 
8 



men;" another "4 quarts of rum." One 
was to furnish "6 pike poles, 18 feet 
long-;" another "6 pike poles, 15 feet 
long;" another, "6 pike poles, 20 feet 
long." It was agreed that the raising 
should be on Oct. 29, beginning at 
sunrise. This plan it is probable was 
carried out and it must have been a 
great day in Zion. The building was 
placed 12 feet from the town line. 

No record has been found of an- 
other meeting of the proprietors for 
ready a year, but on Sept. 9, 1789, they 
came together and voted "to sell the 
pues." This was a strange thing to do 
for there was not a "pue" in the build- 
ing, besides there was little more than 
the skeleton of a church yet erected, 
\.-hile the frame had only been partially 
covered and enclosed, so that it waa 
necessary to advertise for boards, 
shingles, nails and men to place them. 
Nevertheless, out of the 36 "pues" in 
the plan of the building 19 were soon 
sold. So far as known these were the 
cnly sales of church property ever 
made until the final disposal of the 
building, when $36, it is said, were the 
proceeds of what was really sold. At 
last the house of God was so far com- 
pleted as to be of some protection from 
the weather and warrant attempts to 
9 



hold religious services within it. The 
church has been described by those 
who remembered it as commodious and 
high posted, with a good pulpit, plenty 
of good benches for seats, a door on 
hinges and a carpenters' bench to sep- 
arate the singers' seats from the 
benches occupied by the congregation. 
There was no chimney or stove and 
n^ever even a single pane of glass in 
the house. The door was in the middle 
of the front part, facing the road, and 
rude board shutters, w^hich were more 
or less removed for services, served for 
windows. Swallows flew sometimes in 
and out, over the heads of the people 
during services. 

At a meeting of those interested held 
July 7, 1790, it was voted "to have 
preaching in the new meeting-house a-s 
soon as may be." It was also voted to 
have Mr. Payson of Pitchburg, Mr. 
Rice of Westminster, Mr. Gushing of 
Ashburnham and Mr. Adams of Lu- 
nenburg, ministers of the several towns 
in that vicinity, to preach. It was also 
ai the same meeting agreed "to have 
some seats prepared," to hear Mr. 
Gardner of Leominster, and to send for 
Mr. Brown of Winchendon. Governor 
Brooks said Dr. Payson was the first 
to preach in the new church. Later in 
10 



the season the following letter was sent 
by a committee of the proprietors to 
Rev. Mr. Whitney, minister of Shirley: 

"From the proprietors of the New 
Meeting House in Fitchtaurg. 

"Reverend Sir. It is our desire that 
you would extend, so far your Piety 
(pity?) towards us as to come and 
give us a Day's preaching in the New 
Meeting-house that we have lately set 
up on purpose for the publick w^orship. 
And we humbly hope that our grati- 
tude therefor will be no disagreeable 
return for so great a favor. 
Sept ye 7th 1790." 

It seems probable that some if not 
all of these ministers responded fa- 
vorably to these invitations. It is also 
probable that the proprietors in due 
time found that something more than 
gratitude was needed to secure 
preachers, for on the 18th of August, 
1791, a committee was chosen "to 
carry a subscription paper around to 
get money to hire preaching with." 
It was afterward agreed to send for 
Mr. Fuller of Princeton to come and 
preach a day and also for Mr. Davis 
of Holden to come again. Records of 
several important meetings of the 
proprietors held in 1792 have been pre- 
served in a little improvised record 
11 



book, after which nothing was written 
until "Apr. ye 12, 1799," when it was 
voted "that a Committee consisting of 
Dr. Benjamin Marshall, Mr. Jackson 
Durrant and Lieut. John Goodale, be 
appointed to git subscribers;" and 
there the record abruptly ends. But the 
most famous of the preachers who 
ever discoursed in the new meeting 
house were Jesse Lee and Lorenzo 
Dow. The eccentric Dow, whose fame 
has gone out in all the world on his 
great itinerant journeys, or more than 
one occasion came to Fitchburg. He 
preached at the new church Oct. 26, 
1796, and likely on other dates. His 
visits to this vicinity must have been 
long rememljered. These that helped 
to turn the world upside down came 
hither also. Jesse Lee, the great 
apostle of Methodism to New Eng- 
land, preached one Sunday at this 
New Meeting- House. Lee attended 
the conference at Lynn which opened 
July 25, 1794. There he was appointed 
elder, later known as presiding elder, 
by Bishop Asbury. His district in- 
cluded Needham, Boston, Lynn, Mar- 
biehead, Readfield, Orange and Fitch- 
burg; that is, all of Eastern Massa- 
chusetts with all New Hampshire 
thrown into the bargain. Aug. 7, he 
12 



parted from the preachers and came 
up to Fitchburg through Concord and 
Harvard. He was guest of David Mc- 
Intire, who resided near the church, 
from Friday, Aug. 8, to Monday, Aug. 
11. Sunday, Aug. 10th, 1794, he 
preached morning and afternoon at 
the new meeting house in "Fitch- 
burgh." From here he went on up in- 
to New Hampshire and then to 
Orange, Wilbraham and on down into 
Connecticut. There can be no doubt 
that the Methodist itinerants have 
completely revolutionized not only the 
manner but the very doctrines of 
preaching in New England; for they 
came shouting "free grace, free gospel 
and free salvation." 

The men , who erected this new 
church were not free thinkers nor in- 
fidels, nor were they of those who 
cared not for the things that pertain 
to the kingdom of God. Nor was it 
that they wished altogether to shirk 
their responsibility to the churches al- 
ready established. This house of wor- 
ship was the work of the residents in 
its vicinity without regard to creeds, 
going with an honest purpose to bring 
religious privileges within nearer 
reach; so far were they removed 
from meeting houses already built. 
13 



Most of the interested parties con- 
tributed during these years under 
consideration to the churches already 
established in the various towns, like- 
ly however as a taxation. Besides this 
the ministers invited to preach were 
sound in faith, of good repute, of 
acknowledged piety and of ability that 
was recognized in all this region. 
However this forward movement 
helped to bring a greater religious 
freedom and was one of the things 
that led to the complete divorcement 
in 1835 between church and state, 
so Deane Hill became a kind of ec- 
clesiastical Bunker Hill. 

The church without a steeple was 
never entirely finished as a place for 
worship, Was never dedicated, and it 
never properly represented any par- 
ticular parish or denomination. So far 
as can be learned, no regular religious 
services were held in it even for a 
single year. In its later history, itin- 
erant preachers and exhorters of any 
and every name and some with no 
particular form of religious doctrine 
occupied the pulpit, for those who 
might care to listen; but gradually 
with the passing years these services 
were less and less in frequency, and 
finally altogether ceased. So the new 



old meeting-house became at last a kind 
of storehouse but never a stable and 
through its open door the children 
sometimes went in to play. Severely 
plain, unfinished, even at its best, suf- 
fering from neglect, disintegrating by 
the ravages of time it early came to 
be known as "The Lord's Barn." It is 
told that one day two men, one a com- 
parative strang-er, were riding past the 
church. The stranger asked, "What is 
that building?" 'The Lord's house," 
was the reply. "I should think it was 
the Lord's barn," was the rejoinder. 
John Smith told, me that it was cus- 
tomary for the men after services to go 
to the adjoining taverns for the drinks, 
and probably some paid their visits be- 
fore the opening devotions. 

In 1825 or 1826, as nearly as can be 
ascertained, the proprietors had the 
building demolished and the timbers 
and proceeds were divided among them. 
Mrs. John Smith, who was a Carter, 
told me that she could remember 
lumber from the old church as piled 
near her father's house. It is said that 
in recent years a large stick of one of 
its timbers was in some use some- 
where on Newton Place in Fitchburg. 
Such was the fate of the first building 
erected in this region for the worship 
of God by voluntary contributions. 
15 



For seven years annual commemo- 
rative services have been held in Sep- 
tember of each year on the site of the 
meeting--house. In these services min- 
isters and people of different denomi- 
national names have had part. At the 
first of these meeting-s a contribution 
was taken which with later subscrip- 
tions amounted to about $50, This 
with labor given placed a new stone 
memorial wall along- the roadside in 
front. A large boulder was set up for 
a monument bearing on a bronze tablet 
this inscription "Site of the New Meet- 
ing House Known in History as the 
Lord's Barn, 1788—1825." At the sec- 
ond service, in 1904, this wall and mon- 
ument were formally dedicated with 
appropriate exercises. These meetings 
have been well attended by many 
people coming to this sacred spot for 
rest and worship. 

The Utopian dream of a new town 
was never realized: the timbers, rough 
hewn, of the old church, have likely 
gone back to dust; not one foundation 
stone is left upon another, but the in- 
fluences of the teachings preached 
within its walls have gone out into the 
great world and are still living and 
active; eternity alone can reveal the 
truth concerning- many who thus have 
16 



been led or at least guided from dark- 
ness to light and from the power of Sa- 
tan unto God. 

The writer is greatly indebted for 
many of the facts in this paper to Rev. 
Wm. S. Heywood in his History 
of Westminster, and also to James H. 
Laws of Westminster, John Smith and 
wife, Mrs. Dolly S. Parks (mother 
of Gilbert :M. Parks) of Fitchburg, and 
to his mother, Mrs. Delana Lapham 
Hardy of Brookline, N. H., a native of 
Fitchburg. All of these persons are 
now deceased except possibly Mr. Hey- 
wood. 

Notes. 

"Citizens who desired paid 'ministers' 
tax' for the support of preaching at 
this meeting house."— Sentinel, Sept., 
1903. 

The Cooper Tavern went up in a 
baptism of fire some 15 years ago. 

Mrs. Samuel Hawes, (later the wife 
of Rev. John Wood,) said some years 
ago that Voldostine Johnson, a mulatto 
from Vermont, tore down The Lord's 
Barn and used a part of the lumber 
for a wood-choppers' cabin for himself. 
Capt. Martin Newton, who built cotton 
mills in Newton Lane in 1812, used 
some of the largest timbers for a big 
lathe for turning long shafting. 



i% 



Iff 



^°-n^. \% 




-S 






.♦^ 



-t- 



.^^ 



ST. AUGUSTINE 



.o-r, 



,G^ 



A 






^ 



^; 









3"= '^. 



,v 






V 



A' 



S> -t . 



1 






o 



.'^^ ;/■' 



• • f 









A 






DOBBS BROS. 

LIBRARY BINDING 



r 



